Hagman's shootout tally lifts Leafs over Devils - Leafs 6, Devils 5

Newark, NJ (Sports Network) - Niklas Hagman got the game-winner in the shootout, as Toronto clipped New Jersey, 6-5, at the Prudential Center.

On the fourth chance for the Leafs, Hagman slid a backhander through Martin Brodeur's pads while facing center ice. Jamie Langenbrunner had the next opportunity to keep the game going for New Jersey but shot right into the blocker of Vesa Toskala.

Matt Stajan had two goals and an assist for the Maple Leafs, who have won three of four. Alex Steen, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Jamal Mayers also lit the lamp and Toskala stopped 26 shots in regulation for the win.

David Clarkson, Dainius Zubrus, Colin White, Zach Parise and Langenbrunner scored once each for the Devils, who have dropped three in a row.

Brodeur took the loss despite a 43-save performance.

The Devils took a 1-0 lead 2:32 into the contest, as Mike Mottau's shot from the bottom of the right circle was tipped out of the air by Clarkson.

It was 2-0 at 7:04 as Zubrus got credit for slamming the puck through traffic in the crease and into the net.

Toronto's three-goal burst in a little more than three minutes gave the visitors a lead early in the second period.

Stajan controlled a dump-in from the right boards and slid a shot by Brodeur at 4:13 to bring Toronto within a goal. Another Leafs power-play tally knotted the game at 5:31, as Tomas Kaberle's right-point floater sailed through a screen, hit Stajan and bounced in.

The Leafs went up by one with another power-play goal at 7:31. John Mitchell shot from the outer edge of the right circle and the puck hit Steen in the slot and changed direction.

Langenbrunner netted the equalizer 1:43 later, and White blasted one cleanly past Toskala with 6:18 remaining for a 4-3 Devils edge.

Toronto notched a pair of goals in a 70 second span midway through the third by Mayers (even strength) and Ponikarovsky (power play) to go up 5-4, but Parise's tally 52 seconds later forged a tie.

Neither side had any good chances to win in overtime despite New Jersey's 6-0 shot advantage.

Lecavalier shoots down Leafs

In many ways, the Maple Leafs and the Lightning are the same: each has a new coach, a new management team and a first-round pick around which they can build their future.

But the Lightning have something the Leafs do not: a game-breaking superstar.

There was no stopping Vincent Lecavalier last night, the difference in a 3-2 Tampa win that ended the Leafs' modest two-game winning string.

"We don't have a Vinny Lecavalier," said Leafs coach Ron Wilson, stating the obvious. "We should have been aware of where he was. We talked at length about knowing who you're playing against and a few times we didn't. He slipped in behind and took advantage."

Lecavalier scored twice - with top draft pick Steve Stamkos getting his first NHL point in assisting on Lecavalier's game winner.

Both were beauties - one a breakaway, the other a patient play in front of Vesa Toskala that had the Leaf goalie guessing wrong both times.

"I just saw that he (Toskala) kind of moved with the puck," said Lecavalier of his breakaway goal. "When I made my move to the left, he really moved with it. I stopped, and went back, and I got it."

The Leafs had more chances, outshooting Tampa 39-25, but the Lightning, thanks to Lecavalier, made the most of theirs.

"We had plenty of opportunities; a guy like that buries them," Wilson said of Lecavalier. "He's one of the best players in the league. You give him three opportunities, he might score two. ... Some of our guys need five opportunities to score one."

Wilson didn't sound nearly as disappointed in the loss as one might expect, but he did single out Matt Stajan for questionable play, despite Stajan scoring his first goal of the year.

Stajan's goal tied the game 1-1 in the first period. He tapped in Nik Antropov's centring pass from the corner, a reward for his hard work in front of Tampa goalie Mike Smith.

"He went to the net that time," Wilson said of Stajan. "He spent the rest of the night standing behind the net instead of in front.

"You'd think he'd learn: `Geez, I went to the front of the net, and I scored. I'll go stand in front of the net and let Antropov and Pony (Alexei Ponikarovsky) control the area in behind the net and I'll get some garbage goals.'

"That's something we'll talk about."

Jussi Jokinen opened the scoring for Tampa. Mike Van Ryn had the Leafs' second goal.

Some billed this game as a battle between Stamkos - the first pick in last June's draft - and Luke Schenn, No. 5 overall.

Schenn got his usual minutes (22:56) in his first game since getting word the Leafs don't plan to send him back to junior. He has no points yet in nine games, and he's minus-4 on the season, victimized last night at even strength by Lecavalier. Stamkos had a huge cheering section at the sold-out Air Canada Centre.

The former Markham Waxer said before the game he had to get 50 tickets for the game for family and friends. Stamkos's ice time is gradually rising. He played 12:58 including 4:16 on the power play. He outhustled Alex Steen for the puck off a faceoff, helping set up Lecavalier's winner at 13:15 of the second.

"That was his first point tonight, his first of many in this league," Lecavalier said of Stamkos. "He's going to get his first goal and go from there."

The Leafs go from facing one of the best shooters in the league to one of the best puck stoppers, with a game tonight against Martin Brodeur and the Devils in New Jersey.

It's official: Schenn stays in T.O.

Luke Schenn's moment of hockey passage, his first sense of permanence in the NHL, arrived with little fanfare, just a brief meeting with Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson before yesterday's practice.

"He just came up to me and said: `We're going to keep you. You're not going to have to go back and ride the bus.' That's all he said," recounted Schenn.

There wasn't more to be said.

After all, it has been Schenn who has been delivering the emphatic message to Toronto management with his steady play each game and his maturity on and off the ice. Wilson's words merely affirmed what those in the team's front office have believed for a while now: The teenager has earned his spot.

Schenn, drafted fifth overall in June, will not be returned to his junior team at Kelowna.

"He has passed the test," Wilson told reporters.

"We played in Detroit, and he was one of our best players on the ice. We played Anaheim here and he was one of our best players on the ice. He has been our best defenceman defensively in almost every game.

"That's good enough for me."

Schenn, as calm off the ice as he appears on it, finally let a bit of gee-whiz wonderment slip out when asked about getting word he would remain with Toronto.

"I'm real excited and it's pretty cool to be part of the Toronto Maple Leafs, no question about that," the 18-year-old beamed.

Schenn turns 19 on Sunday and the Leafs have, historically, been tough on young defenceman.

The argument has been made, quite vociferously by some in the media, that the Leafs risk ruining another prospect by rushing Schenn. The argument says he should be given the opportunity to further learn and develop in junior before getting full-time exposure to the pressures of the NHL and the Toronto market.

Wilson took issue with that point.

"You've got a head coach with about 20 years experience in coaching," he said. "You've got Tim Hunter with 11 years of coaching experience. You've got Keith Acton with maybe 10 or 11 years of coaching experience, and Rob Zettler with six. Then you factor in all of us with our playing experience, you're talking over 100 years of experience. Why wouldn't you want those guys teaching a young player like Luke how to play in the league?"

The coach also sloughed off the argument that by playing a 10th game this season - a threshold that Schenn will reach tomorrow at New Jersey - it is poor long-term strategy because it puts the rookie one year closer to salary arbitration rights. Also, by using up the first year of his entry-level contract, he'll get to a higher salary quicker, a consideration in the salary cap world.

"You don't put people on your team because you're worried five, six, seven, eight years from now. That's backward thinking," Wilson said. "You've got to keep these people on your team if they can help your team and they're ready for it. He obviously is. I said if he was in the top four defencemen on our team, he would stay.

"He's easily in the top four."

Schenn, typically partnered with veteran Tomas Kaberle, has averaged 21 minutes, 24 seconds of ice time. That's third on the club behind Kaberle (25:47) and fellow blueliner Pavel Kubina (22:10). Schenn also has been a regular on the penalty kill and a little power play time.

Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher said watching Schenn's play, and Wilson's confidence in him, made keeping him the obvious move.

"He's going to be in a position to learn here, but the bottom line is he has demonstrated he can play here," said Fletcher.

Rookie Schenn shines in Leafs win over Senators - Leafs 3, Ottawa 2

TORONTO - Leave it up to an 18-year-old prairie boy to revive the Battle of Ontario.

The last time the Toronto Maple Leafs faced the Ottawa Senators in the playoffs was four years ago. Since then, rosters have changed and it seemed that the rivalry was finally starting to fade away.

Then Luke Schenn came along and wrote a new chapter in the book of hate.

Less than a minute into Saturday night's game, the rookie defenceman set the tone in Toronto's 3-2 win over Ottawa by dropping his gloves with Senators enforcer Chris Neil.

"I had to get the first fight over sooner or later," Schenn said of his first NHL bout. "I don't go looking for it all the time, but once in a while it just happens."

On Saturday, the fight happened because an Ottawa player had taken liberties with Schenn's teammate.

Neil, a fourth-line agitator who used to go toe-to-toe with Toronto's Tie Domi and Wade Belak, had caught Matt Stajan with what appeared to be a knee-on-knee hit. Without thinking, Schenn rushed to his teammate's aid by taking on the much-older and stronger opponent.

"I don't know if he kneed Stajan or not, but he took a little run at him. So I decided to jump in there," said Schenn, who was named the game's first star. "I realized that (Neil's) not afraid to fight once in a while."

Indeed, the six-foot-two, 216-pound Schenn took more punches than he gave against Neil.

After the game, the youngster's nose was still bleeding. But while Schenn may have lost his first NHL fight, his teammates and fans made him feel like a victor.

Stajan skated over and patted the youngster on the head. The Toronto crowd roared with applause. And his team responded with a hard-fought win.

"I think Luke would respond to anything that he feels is a cheap shot and gets right in there," said Leafs head coach Ron Wilson. "It was a mob scene when he got out of the penalty box . . . it was fun to see. I think the fans really appreciated him jumping in there."

The fight seemed to give life to the Leafs, who took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by Dominic Moore.

It wasn't pretty, but it was the type of goal that Wilson has been trying to get his players to score since the start of this season.

Jason Blake drove the puck hard to the net and Mike Van Ryn and Moore followed up by whacking in the rebound at 14:14 into the first period. It was only the Leafs' sixth power-play goal this season.

"That's going to have to be our game. Forecheck strong and don't be fancy," said Moore, who has two goals this season. "Speed is our strength. We're going to have to play aggressively and work hard to get our chances. The ones that go in are because of hard work."

Toronto, which outshot Ottawa 21-9 in the first period and 12-4 in the second, outworked its opponent. And it paid off.

Mikhail Grabovski scored his first goal of the season at 2:15 in the middle frame to put Toronto up 2-0. Less than two minutes later, Ottawa's Shean Donovan redirected an Alexandre Picard point shot to pull within one.

Alexei Ponikarovsky put the Leafs up 3-1 at 13:37 in the third, but the Senators, who had lost 4-3 to the Anaheim Ducks the night before, managed to come back again.

In the final minute of the game, Ottawa forward Dean McAmmond scored a short-handed goal at 19:11 to make it a one-goal game. But with the net empty, the Senators could not get the tying goal.

Hello Finger, goodbye Tlusty

Jeff Finger is ready to play. Jason Blake is apparently out of the doghouse. Jiri Tlusty has been sent to the minors. And Carlo Colaiacovo seems to be in danger of taking up permanent residence beside the nearly-forgotten Ian White.

It was another day in Leafland, another day of pulling strings, making moves as patient GM Cliff Fletcher shops around his excess defencemen.

Fletcher said he'd hold on to his blueliners "until somebody blows us away with something that may appeal to us. We're wide open. Obviously, we know what we have, and we're going to take advantage of it at the appropriate time.

"We know they're NHL defencemen. I'm not saying who we'd move," added Fletcher, who said he had "preliminary" talks with his colleagues at the GM's meetings in Chicago earlier this week. "We'll listen to anything anyone has had to offer and go from there."

Tlusty, the Leafs' 20-year-old sophomore winger, knew something was up yesterday when he wore the same green jersey Blake and Matt Stajan had worn prior to their one-game status as healthy scratches.

"Everybody's worried about his spot (in the lineup) if you're wearing a green jersey," said Tlusty, who spoke to reporters before his demotion was confirmed. "I'm worried about playing hard because I didn't play well. I understand why I'm wearing the green jersey. I didn't play well the last two games. That's what happens. I have to start doing things better."

Moving Tlusty did not require waivers and alleviated the roster pressure with Finger being reactivated.

"He hasn't been getting things done," Fletcher said of Tlusty. "It might do him some good to get down there, play a few games. He'll work his way back up here, for sure."

Finger, the Leafs' $14 million free agent defenceman, is fully healed from a broken bone in his foot.

"I would have played the first day I skated, if it was up to me, but it's not up to me," said Finger, eager to show fans his physical style of play. "It's been a little bit frustrating. That's the game and that's life and that's how it goes."

Fletcher said Finger and Blake were expected to play tonight against the Ottawa Senators. His activation leaves the Leafs with three extra skaters - the roster limit of 23 - but all of them are defencemen. It will be a game-day decision for coach Ron Wilson to decide which defenceman who played in Boston will sit alongside Colaiacovo and White.

There was supposed to have been some kind of rotation among defencemen, in Wilson's words, to keep everyone a bit unhappy rather have one player really angry. But Colaiacovo is quietly seething.

While reporters gathered to speak with Finger, Mike Van Ryn and Luke Schenn - Colaiacovo's body language was sullen. Wilson acknowledged Colaiacovo has been to his office to find out what it is he's done to deserve being benched.

"I've talked to Carlo. He's got to keep working for when his chance comes," said Wilson. "We win a game, we play well defensively, it's hard to crack the lineup.

"There's always going to be lots of injuries. You don't get down, you get ready. If you get an opportunity and you've been pouting, you're only going to let yourself down when you get back in there."

Wilson said it's difficult to change a lineup that's winning. Van Ryn has played two solid games since his benching, and now is the team's leading scorer among defencemen. Anton Stralman - another sophomore who could be sent down without clearing waivers - is second with three points.

"I'd look at it as a healthy competition," Finger said of the nine-man, blue-line corps. "Some guys might look at it as another way. It's the business. That's the way it goes."

Van Ryn, who spent nine months training hard while recuperating from a wrist injury, was upset to have been a healthy scratch earlier. But he understood.

"They're going to play whoever they want to play," said Van Ryn.

Pesky Leafs fight back to beat B's - Leafs 4, Boston 2

It's all but official now: Luke Schenn has made the Leafs as a teenage defenceman.

Leafs coach Ron Wilson made his enthusiasm for the 18-year-old's play quite clear last night after a solid, 4-2 win over Boston in which Schenn stood up for Matt Stajan and the rest of his teammates after Stajan was hammered on a hit by Bruins defenceman Dennis Wideman.

"He'll more than likely stay, but I can't guarantee it," Wilson said of Schenn, who has been the best story in Toronto since training camp, but could be sent back to junior under NHL contract guidelines. "He's a sponge, and he wants to get better.

"And he has to be a big hit in the dressing room the way he jumped in their for Matt."

Stajan concurred with his coach, but the Leafs must first decide if they want to keep Schenn past nine games in the NHL, the limit at which they must honour the first year of his contract or return him to junior.

That seems a formality now, since Schenn's play has made him one of the Leafs' top four defencemen.

"That showed a lot about him, and I definitely have to buy him a few dinners now, I owe him," said Stajan, who was rocked, but not injured, by the first-period hit.

"That's what this team has to be all about. We have to stick up for each other, we're a big family, we're all brothers and it's great when your youngest guy backs you up like that."

Schenn's character put an exclamation point on a night full of character-building efforts.

Stajan came back to pick up an assist on Nik Antropov's tying goal in the second period. Anton Stralman scored the winner in the third period, while Nik Hagman, with an empty netter, and Mike Van Ryn, had the other Toronto goals.

The winner was sweet vindication for Stralman, who inadvertently tipped a Blake Wheeler centring pass into his net in the first period, putting the Leafs in a 2-0 hole.

"It was fun to score, but I wasn't thinking about what happened before," Stralman said. "Sometimes you get lucky and my goal was lucky, and the other goal (into his net) was unlucky."

Van Ryn, like Stralman, bagged his first goal of the season. Van Ryn was also slammed through the glass thanks to a thunderous hit from Milan Lucic on the first shift of the second period.

"I didn't think I was hit that hard. I knew there was glass down in my equipment," said Van Ryn, who left the ice and cleaned up in the dressing room before returning.

"It's one of those things that happens, and I've seen it happen to other players but I've never had something like that happen to me. It wasn't like I was hurt or anything.

"He (Lucic) is a big guy and I guess the glass just exploded. The training staff vacuumed my equipment and I changed my undershirt and went out again, and that was it."

The game also marked another instalment of Wilson's accountability principle as the coach benched Jason Blake and welcomed back Ryan Hollweg from a three-game suspension for boarding.

The Leafs outshot an opponent and came back from a 2-0 first period deficit for the second game in a row. But the real buzz in the dressing room, beyond the big-time bodychecks and the triumphant comeback, was "the kid."

"Who stepped in there, eh, and how old is he ...?" Wilson said of Schenn and the fact he stood up for Stajan. "He's done everything anyone would want on your team, let alone an 18-year-old."

Luckless Leafs lose again in a shootout - Anaheim 3, Toronto 2

TORONTO - Vesa Toskala had stopped 19 of 21 shots against the Anaheim Ducks Tuesday night. But with the game tied 2-2 and headed to a shootout, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Ron Wilson put the call in for his closer.

It was a gamble that failed to pay off.

Though Wilson likes to describe Curtis Joseph as a shootout specialist, the Leafs backup had been sitting on the bench for 2 1/2 hours when he was inserted into the game.

His muscles were cold. His mind was not sharp. And it showed.

"That's entertainment," Joseph said.

Teemu Selanne and Corey Perry both scored in the shootout as the Ducks defeated the Leafs 3-2 at the Air Canada Centre. Toronto's Nikolai Kulemin and Tomas Kaberle were both stopped by Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Toskala did not appear upset about being pulled. Sure, he would have preferred to try to get Toronto the win. But the 31-year-old had allowed four goals on five shots and lost twice in shootouts this season.

"I don't have any problem at all," Toskala said. "As a team we just have to find a way to get those points because they're going to be huge (at the) end of the season. Today we were trying this - it didn't work."

Wilson defended his decision.

"It's percentages," he said. "You guys are experts. What's their save percentages? Career-wise, they've only scored 28 per cent of the time (on Joseph). On Toskala, teams have scored 54 per cent of the time. You have to score obviously. But you also need some saves."

Toskala has a career record of 2-9 in shootout decisions. Joseph headed into Tuesday night's game with a 5-3 record and had allowed only five goals on 32 shots.

Wilson had told reporters on Monday that he was against replacing a goaltender for the shootout because of the potential injury risks. But he said that Joseph was given a heads-up well before going in.

"I told Curtis that if this goes the way that I think it's going to go, be ready," Wilson said. "I want you to start warming up late in the game in case I need to call you; like a pitcher."

Joseph failed to get the save. But Wilson said he would consider switching goaltenders again.

"Tonight it didn't work, but it's the law of averages," he said. "We're going to keep practising it. It's like a three-foot putt. If you don't practice it, you never know if you can make them. And that's all that a shootout really is, practising three-foot putts, making 100 of them in a row and that's what we have to do."

The shootout loss erased what had been a valiant late-game effort by the Leafs.

Down 2-0 in the first period, Toronto outshot Anaheim 15-4 in the second, 13-0 in the third and tied the game on a pair of goals by Nik Antropov. The Toronto forward scored once in the second period and again with 52.7 seconds remaining in the third with the Leafs' net empty for an extra attacker.

"We got our forechecking going and they wore down," Wilson said. "But we got pucks to the net."

Anaheim opened the scoring on a Francois Beauchemin point shot at 4:36.

Midway through the period, Anaheim struck again. This time it was tough guy George Parros, who went top corner with a wrist shot on a breakaway.

After the Leafs managed just one goal in two weekend games, the coaches stressed the importance of getting more pucks and bodies to the net. Through the opening 20 minutes, no one seemed to heed the message.

Toronto's supposed top line of John Mitchell, Antropov and Jason Blake was a minus-1 and did not record a single shot on net in the first period. It was only the Leafs juggled their forwards that the offence showed some sings of life.

Antropov came alive when he was teamed with Matt Stajan and Alexei Ponikarovsky.

Leafs shot down by Pitt snipers

PITTSBURGH-From the youngest player in last night's game to the oldest, all anyone could do was be in awe of Sidney Crosby.

The Kid used the Toronto Maple Leafs - one of his favourite patsies - to springboard past a number of career milestones, scoring a goal and adding three assists in vaulting the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-1 win at the Mellon Arena.

"There's no question he's probably the top player in the league and he showed it," said 18-year-old Leaf defenceman Luke Schenn. "He took control of the game."

And 41-year-old goalie Curtis Joseph - victimized for Crosby's first goal of the season - could only shake his head.

"Sidney was on tonight," said Joseph. "And he kind of sunk us."

Did he ever. Crosby's goal - a bank shot off Mikhail Grabovski - was the 100th of his career, a game-breaking goal that put a close game out of reach at 12:15 of the third period. His assist on the game's first goal - a beautiful pass to Pascal Dupuis - was the 200th assist of his career. By the time the night was done, Crosby had 302 career points in 219 career game.

"I don't expect four-points nights, but I definitely wanted to score," said Crosby. "I felt like I was doing good things, but the puck wasn't going in."

To boot, Crosby now has 23 points in 13 career games against Toronto.

"He obvious had a little bit of luck on his goal," said Leafs coach Ron Wilson. "He made two great plays on the power play, on those passes. We were aware of that. We just didn't execute very well."

Not to be outdone was Evgeni Malkin with four assists. The Penguins had been misfiring lately so coach Michel Therrien reunited Malkin with Crosby to jump-start the offence.

Malkin's third assist was the 200th point of his 166-game career. And Malkin may like playing against Toronto more than Crosby. He now has 23 points in nine games against Toronto.

Throw in a goal from Miro Satan - who has 51 points in 53 career games against Toronto - and a late goal by Petr Sykora and a Leafs team that was fading in its second game in two nights didn't really have a chance.

The Leafs played a decent road game, slowing the pace and keeping scoring chances to a minimum, but the opportunistic Penguins went 2-for-4 on the power play while the Leafs were 1-for-7.

"We had a number of scoring chances," said Wilson. "Their better players cashed in. We took a couple of bad penalties and it kind of cost us."

Nik Antropov scored his first goal of the season to give the Leafs 1-0 lead and later had a second goal disallowed when video show he directed the puck into the net with his skate.

Wilson shook up his lines in an effort to generate some offence. Nikolai Kulemin was inserted alongside Mikhail Grabovski and Niklas Hagman, a line that had plenty of jump and plenty of opportunities but still came up empty. That moved Jiri Tlusty to Dominic Moore's line with Steen.

John Mitchell was moved to the first line, dumping Alexei Ponikarovsky to the fourth as Wilson continued to send the message that no jobs are safe.

"I want to get Mitchell more ice time," said Wilson. "He competes really hard, he's fast. He's digging in on faceoffs. That's what we want. We want people who are going to compete every single shift."

Also, Carlo Colaiacovo was reinserted on the blue line, with Mike Van Ryn joining the scrubs as a healthy scratch.

Tavares sees good things in the Leafs

A Toronto Maple Leafs fan already enamoured with the prospect of landing Oshawa Generals star John Tavares in the 2009 NHL draft will want to read this:

"I don't think (the Leafs) are as bad as everyone says they are," Tavares said as a life-long fan of the Blue and White. "They've got great goaltending and they've got a good defence. I think their defence is very underrated ... they're a good hockey club."

Tavares knows a thing or two about deconstructing a blue line. He has been doing an excellent job of that this season as the Ontario Hockey League's top scorer with 12 goals and seven assists in 11 games.

Surprisingly, that start isn't as hot as last season's when he scored 14 goals and had 13 assists in his first 11 games en route to a 118-point finish. But Tavares, frankly, doesn't care.

Gone are the days the 18-year-old would become "too frustrated" when his play didn't meet his own high standards. As a sports fan, he still reads the newspaper every day and says he's been able to learn from his critics: those who say his stock is falling.

And, after four seasons of being the NHL's projected top draft pick - having every stat, shift and statement dissected - Tavares has matured to the point of just having fun.

"With this year being a big year for myself, I just decided to enjoy it because it only comes once," Tavares said of finally being NHL draft eligible. "I'm going to take advantage of my opportunities and have fun because that's what (playing hockey's) all about."

Generals head coach Chris DePiero said he has noticed a stress-free Tavares this season, despite the anxiety many players suffer in their draft year.

"It's almost the opposite of him feeling pressure," DePiero said. "I think he's taken the tack that he's going to eliminate any kind of thought that there is pressure and I think that's where his maturity both as a player and as a person has come in and it's translating well on the ice.

"It's the approach where if he's the best player every day then the big picture will take care of itself."

That philosophy seems to be working. The Oakville native is only 46 goals shy of breaking Peter Lee's OHL career scoring record of 215. Last week, Tavares moved into second place as the Generals' franchise leading scorer with 348 career points and he's closing in on the record set by former General Marc Savard (413 points).

Long-time Oshawa trainer Bryan Boyes still has a few of Savard's sticks, including the one used to set the scoring milestone, but Tavares said he has never entertained the thought of testing it out for himself.

"No, definitely not," Tavares said with a laugh. "But I've looked at it a few times. I remember when I first came into the league, I thought (of setting records), `You never know one day' and if that happens it's great ... if it happens for me, I'd be thrilled and honoured."

Four years seems like an eternity for those chronicling Tavares' progress since he first made headlines as a 15-year-old granted "exceptional player status" by the OHL. But for Tavares, the ride to the NHL draft has gone by all too fast.

"It's kind of funny, I was just talking about it the other day with my mom, you know it's already my fourth year," Tavares said. "It was like yesterday it was my first time at the rink, my first training camp - it's gone by pretty quick, there have been a lot of ups and downs ... a lot of great memories and, hopefully, this year I can make a few more great memories."

BATTALION MOURNING: Funeral services for long-time Brampton Battalion contributor Jerry Callaghan, known to many around the OHL as "The Commissioner," will be held today at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, 16066 The Gore Road, Caledon East, at 11 a.m. Callaghan died Sunday after complications from surgery. He was 63.

2010 MEM CUP: The WHL announced yesterday that the Brandon (Man.) Wheat Kings will play host to the Memorial Cup at the Keystone Centre, May 14-23, 2010.

GOOD TO GO: Mike Mascioli and Kevin Hudes of the Kitchener Rangers both played in Monday's 3-2 victory over Guelph, two days after being injured in a car accident with a pickup truck. The driver of the pickup truck was charged with failing to stop at a red light.

Leafs offence continues to sputter in loss to Rangers - Rangers 1 , Leafs 0

NEW YORK - Vesa Toskala could use a break.

The Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender stopped all 32 shots he faced against the New York Rangers on Friday night, but his team failed to bail him out, losing 1-0 in a shootout.

"We wasted a great effort from Vesa," said Toronto forward Matt Stajan. "He got that point for us."

Toskala is not expected to play when the Leafs face the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. On Friday night, however, it was Rangers goaltender Steve Valiquette who was given the night off.

In a poor display of offence, Toronto managed only 21 shots through three full periods and a five-minute overtime against the New York backup netminder.

Toskala was not so lucky. As usual, the Toronto goaltender was the reason why his team had a remote chance of picking up two points.

The Leafs were the weaker team for most of the game, but Toronto was particularly awful in the third. Outshot 13-4 and short-handed on three occasions, the game should never have reached overtime.

"Outstanding. He was awesome (Friday night)," said Leafs rookie defenceman Luke Schenn. "He was the one who kept us in the game, for sure. In the third period, he came up with some big saves. He was our best player."

In the overtime shootout, Nikolai Zherdev and Frederik Sjostrom scored for New York, while Nikolai Kulemin potted Toronto's only goal. Matt Stajan and Jason Blake were both stopped by Valiquette.

"I think the first and second (periods), that was the new Leafs style," Toskala said of his team's conservative mode. "But we haven't been able to keep it together for 60 minutes.

"I guess we have to be happy with the one point."

For the second time in four games, the Leafs faced a team's No. 2 goaltender.

Montreal gave Carey Price the night off in a 6-1 win against Toronto last week. Friday night, it was Henrik Lundqvist who rested, because the Rangers face the Stanley Cup-champion Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night.

Based on how much offence Toronto managed to create Friday, there would have been no harm in having Lundqvist play.

The Leafs managed 12 shots in the first two periods, but few threatened to go in.

With neither team providing much in the way of offence, a Marc Staal bodycheck injected life into what had been a listless hockey game through the opening 20 minutes.

Stajan was attempting to deke around Paul Mara early in the second period when Staal levelled him with a solid hit. That prompted Leafs forward Jamal Mayers to fight Staal on his teammate's behalf.

The sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden crowd suddenly came to life. And the players followed suit.

On the ensuing shift, New York's Colton Orr tried to shove Nik Antropov over the boards and into the Toronto bench. Moments later, Aaron Voros dropped Leafs defenceman Jonas Frogren in a mid-ice collision.

Of course, aggression did not translate into goals. For that, Toskala was partially to blame.

The season is young, but the diminutive goaltender is already putting together a resume of highlight-reel saves. Friday night, he stopped all 17 shots he faced in the opening 40 minutes. That included robbing Scott Gomez of a sure goal, using his blocker hand to grab a puck that was rolling over the goal-line.

Toskala also received some help from a goaltender's best friends: the posts.

Midway through the third period, Gomez believed he had finally solved the Finnish netminder. The Rangers forward took a slapshot from top of the faceoff circle that beat Toskala, but the puck bounced off both posts and never crossed the goal-line.

"Vesa played very well when we needed him," said Leafs head coach Ron Wilson.

"For sure, he came up with some big saves. Obviously, he needed a little bit of luck. On that one shift, (Gomez) hit the posts twice. He gave us a great effort."

Leafs' Hollweg dodges longer ban

Ryan Hollweg has been let off with his automatic three-game suspension and a stern finger wagging.

NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell opted not to increase the length of the Maple Leaf winger's forced vacation that kicked in when Hollweg received a game misconduct for boarding against St. Louis on Monday.

But, if Hollweg doesn't clean up his act, Campbell warned the consequences will be much more severe.

If Hollweg is assessed another game misconduct for boarding, hitting from behind - his worst habit - or certain stick infractions in the next 41 games, he will automatically get a four-game suspension. But Campbell said it won't stop there.

"Enough is enough," said Campbell. "If it happens again, he'll be out for more than four games. He's got to find a way to do what he does but in a better way than the way he does it. He can't keep hitting guys in the numbers."

That's what happened Monday when Hollweg pasted St. Louis rookie defenceman Alex Pietrangelo into the glass to earn a five-minute major and game misconduct.

The winger, who has a well-earned reputation for playing beyond the boundaries of the rules, was in his first game back after serving a two-game suspension for the same kind of check. Based on the NHL's rulebook, each subsequent suspension is one-game longer until Hollweg can go 41 games without a game misconduct.

After the game, Leafs general manager Cliff Fletcher said the call was "marginal," while coach Ron Wilson said it was "debatable how you call that a penalty."

While Campbell didn't completely buy into the Leafs' argument, he saw enough mitigating circumstances to dissuade him from upping Hollweg's suspension.

He said Pietrangelo was not hurt on the play and the hit, when examined on its own, would not have warranted supplemental discipline.

"But he's got to learn," said Campbell. "Cliff Fletcher and I talked about it. Ryan is a multiple offender. You want to say it's about the past acts but what about the future? There is a responsibility for all players on the ice to be prepared to take a hit but there's also a responsibility on behalf of the player delivering the hit to be conscious of the position the (receiving) player is in.

"And Ryan constantly makes contact with a player's numbers."

Fletcher said he still likes what Hollweg brings to the team but Wilson and his staff will have to help the winger find the balance between his aggression and his propensity for taking reckless penalties. On Monday, Hollweg's penalty changed the complexion of a game Toronto was dominating before the Blues scored twice during the extended man advantage to pull even 3-3. St. Louis went on to win 5-4 in a shootout.

Fletcher said having Hollweg sitting in the penalty box is "not a luxury we can afford."

"He's got to play his game, that's the only way he's effective and it's the only reason we acquired him," said Fletcher.

"He's just got to use more discretion out there than other people because, let's face it, they're looking for him."

Campbell took issue with the notion that Hollweg was a marked man among league officials, saying, "It's not the referees picking on him. It's always different referees making the calls."

Toronto acquired Hollweg from the Rangers in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2009 draft. After his first six games with his new club, Hollweg will have played exactly four minutes.

Hollweg to sit three games, maybe more

Ryan Hollweg will spend the next three games wearing civvies while watching his teammates play.

That decision comes courtesy of the league.

Should he not clean up his act after that, he'll spend plenty of more nights viewing games from the sidelines.

That decision will come courtesy of the Maple Leafs braintrust.

There is no doubt Hollweg feels relief today after NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell opted not to dump any additional punishment on the feisty winger for his wallpapering into the Air Canada Centre boards of St. Louis Blues defenceman Alex Pietrangelo during a 5-4 shootout loss Monday afternoon.

As it stands, Hollweg still must serve the automatic three-game suspension he received for being slapped with a five-minute boarding major and game misconduct, the fourth time he has committed such a foul since Jan. 5.

At the time of the Pietrangelo incident, Hollweg had just completed a two-game suspension for ramming the Blues' Jay McKee during an exhibition game 11 days earlier. His Leafs regular- season debut Monday lasted five shifts before he was given the heave ho for his actions.

General manager Cliff Fletcher said the coaches will have a heart-to-heart chat with Hollweg in the coming days, adding that, despite public pressure to the contrary, he is not about to be waived or released.

If he does not start to toe the line, however, Fletcher has a warning for the feisty forward.

"He's going to have to learn or he'll be watching a lot of games from the press box -- and not because he's suspended, either," Fletcher said last night.

"We need the energy he brings to the table. Our team needs that. We like it. He can be an asset. But we can not afford the luxury of trying to kill all those penalties. We have had difficulties killing penalties for more than a year now."

The Leafs, for the record, have allowed five goals in their past 13 short-handed situations.

From the get-go Fletcher maintained the call on Hollweg was "marginal," a stance he refused to back down from yesterday.

"Pietrangelo turned his head at first and saw Hollweg coming," Fletcher said.

Part of the reason the Leafs were irked at the penalty dates back to an incident that occurred during the team's 6-1 loss at the hands of the rival Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. Team officials remain incredulous that no penalty was called when one of the Habs' talented Kostitsyn brothers pancaked Matt Stajan into the boards from behind.

"No doubt the Kostitsyn hit on Stajan was worse than the one by Hollweg," Fletcher said.

Hollweg's suspension means he will miss the opportunity to face his former team, the New York Rangers, at Madison Square Garden on Friday.

Hollweg Kills the Leafs - St. Louis 5, Toronto 1

The intermission message in the Maple Leafs dressing room was to the point and presumably simple enough to grasp.

With a 3-0 lead, the first 10 minutes of the second period were going to be crucial.

Apparently, something was lost in the translation for tough guy forward Ryan Hollweg, who had no thoughts of penance following a two-game suspension to start the season.

Hollweg's idea of making a statement was to run St. Louis Blues rookie Alex Pietrangelo from behind, pasting him into the boards.

The resulting five-minute major changed the complexion of the game and ultimately played the biggest role in allowing the Blues to escape the Air Canada Centre with a 5-4 shootout victory that probably shouldn't have been.

"It's debatable how you call that as a penalty, but obviously Ryan is a repeat offender and the referees are aware of that," Leafs coach Ron Wilson said sticking up for his troubled forward who faces an automatic three-game suspension.

"But you have to put that aside and kill the penalty or at least limit the damage and we didn't."

There was no debate from 18-year-old Pietrangelo or the rest of the Blues, who got their payback quickly on the scoreboard.

With the Leafs on their heels after allowing Brad Boyes to bury a rebound past Vesa Toskala 33 seconds into the period, the Blues pounced on the opportunity presented by Hollweg.

Power-play goals by Patrik Berglund and Keith Tkachuk less than a minute apart tied it and suddenly an impressive Leafs lead was wasted.

"It's tough," Toskala said. "They have a good power play and lots of skilled guys. We just have to stay out of the box, I guess."

Even tougher for Toskala, who watched the Blues power-play unit of Tkachuk, Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald buzz around him for five minutes, was seeing how his team squandered a similar opportunity.

With a two-man advantage later in the period, the slow motion Leafs power-play unit could muster just two non-threatening shots on Blues goaltender Manny Legace.

"Our power play needs a lot of work to stay the least," Wilson said. "We got stagnant. We had too many guys thinking of scoring instead of moving the puck around.

"We might have been able to settle it with that extended three-on-three."

Instead, the Leafs will have to settle with a single point and their first squandered opportunity of the young season.

The Blues had shootout goals by McDonald and Boyes -- both on nifty dekes -- while only Nikolai Kulemin counted for the Leafs.

The loss negated the energetic first period, an encouraging sign given the game was less than 48 hours after Saturday's 6-1 drubbing to the Montreal Canadiens.

Tomas Kaberle opened the scoring at the 3:22 mark of the first period on a clever pass from Mike Van Ryn. Kulemin, who rapidly is becoming the Leafs highlight machine, then fired a precision backhand past Legace.

Alex Ponikarovsky made it 3-0 before the period ended, the second consecutive goal created by the aggressive Leafs forecheck that had so much success in the season-opening win over the Red Wings in Detroit on Thursday.

St. Louis took a 4-3 lead on Tkachuk's fourth goal of the young season but Nik Hagman's first as a Leaf with six minutes lfet tied it at four.

"We did lots of things right," said Toskala, who made a huge save on Kariya in the final minute of overtime. "A couple of mistakes cost us, but overall it was a pretty good effort."

----

REPLAY

T.O. TRIFECTA

When Nik Hagman put the Leafs up 4-3 late in the second period it was his first goal in blue and white. And it wasn't the only maiden to be broken on the play -- John Mitchell and Jamal Mayers earned assists for their first points as Leafs.

POWER OUTAGE

Despite a two-man advantage in the second period, the Leafs couldn't mount much of an attack on the Blues, managing just two non-threatening shots on goaltender Manny Legace, much to the disapproval of the 19,045 in the Thanksgiving Day crowd at the Air Canada Centre.

SINGIN' THE BLUES

It took a shootout to do it this time, but the Blues have now won their past six games at the Air Canada Centre dating back to the 1999-2000 season. Yesterday's matinee was the only regular-season meeting between the former Norris Division combatants.

ROOKIE BLUES

The Leafs third goal came on a classic rookie blunder by Blues defenceman Alex Pietrangelo, whose blind backhanded pass behind his own net ended on the stick of Jason Blake. A quick Blake feed to Alex Ponikarovsky made for an easy goal and what looked like the beginning of a rout.

POINT-GETTERS

Toronto G A P

Nik Antropov 0 2 2

Tomas Kaberle 1 0 1

Nikolai Kulemin 1 0 1

Alexei Ponikarovsky 1 0 1

Niklas Hagman 1 0 1

Mike Van Ryn 0 1 1

Jason Blake 0 1 1

John Mitchell 0 1 1

Jamal Mayers 0 1 1

St. Louis

Brad Boyes 1 1 2

Paul Kariya 1 1 2

Patrik Berglund 1 1 2

Andy McDonald 0 2 2

KeithTkachuk 1 0 1

David Perron 0 1 1

Steve Wagner 0 1 1

Shellacking shows Leafs have lots of work to do

You have to wonder if, given the choice, the Maple Leafs would gladly have flipped the results.

They were expected to get whupped in Detroit on Thursday to begin the season, but instead pulled off a surprising win.

Last night, Ron Wilson's crew opened at the Air Canada Centre, a dungeon of misery for the team last season. The Montreal Canadiens were in town and, lo and behold, all the optimism generated by the Detroit triumph evaporated in about a period and a half, with the Leafs ultimately being trounced 6-1.

Losing in Detroit and showing some moxie and strength on home ice, you can bet, would have been a better result. But a 1-1 record is a 1-1 record, and now, after playing two of the top teams in the NHL to start the season, the Leafs host the St. Louis Blues tomorrow, another team that finished well out of the post-season last year and is featuring an 18-year-old, Alex Pietrangelo, on defence to start the 2008-09 campaign.

The Leafs still looked speedier than last year against the Habs, but the Canadiens brought elements of size, aggression and puck movement to the table that the home team just couldn't handle. Mike Komisarek and Duncan O'Byrne handed out lots of big hits from the Montreal back end, and the Canadiens just owned the front of the Leaf net with the Toronto blue-line corps in danger of developing a reputation as a group that can't keep its own crease area clean.

Alex Kovalev took Jonas Frogren into the low post for a goal in the first, and none of the other five Leaf defenceman did much better. Youngster Luke Schenn may develop into a Komisarek-type bruiser, but last night he looked a lot more jittery with the puck on his stick than he did against the Wings.

Down 6-1 after two periods after giving up two in the first and four in the second on a total of 23 shots, the Leafs were at least able to give 41-year-old backup goalie Curtis Joseph a period, with Vesa Toskala relieved from his misery after 40 minutes. It was Joseph's first appearance for the Leafs in six years after leaving as a free agent following the 2001-02 season.

By the third, head coach Ron Wilson was already fiddling with his lineup, moving Nikolai Kulemin in beside Mikhail Grabovski and Nik Hagman, while Jiri Tlusty took some shifts with Dominic Moore and Alex Steen.

In all, the Leafs just didn't have the talent to stay with the Habs, and they weren't as industrious as they were in Motown. That, of course, will be the challenge for Wilson, to coax strong efforts out of this squad more than 50 per cent of the time.

Aided by a bunch of power plays, the Habs owned the puck, and if there were a time-of-possession stat in hockey, it would have showed them controlling the rubber at least 75 per cent of the time. Its going to be a special year in Montreal with the 100th anniversary celebrations and the all-star game, and this looks like it could be a special team, one that rebounded impressively after losing a shootout in Buffalo Friday night.

For all the optimism created in Toronto after the Leafs beat the Red Wings on Thursday, last night proved Wilson still has lots of work to do. His biggest problems right now are carryovers from a year ago - poor play at home and lamentable penalty killing - and it's going to take some time before the Leafs can develop the defensive consistency Wilson is after.

Moreover, they did have some very good chances last night but couldn't get much past Jaroslav Halak in the Montreal net. Goal-scoring always figured to be an issue with this team, and to no one's surprise, it is.

Improved team speed, after all, isn't going to fix everything.

Habs rain on Leafs' parade

There were a few things to like last night at the Air Canada Centre.

There were 48th Highlanders, piping in the season. Canadian Olympic medallists were honoured in both official languages and the crowd supplied itself with a rousing a cappella version of the national anthem.

But after that, there wasn't a lot for Leaf fans to cheer.

Outside of hitting posts, there wasn't a facet of the game in which the Toronto Maple Leafs outplayed the Montreal Canadiens.

So no surprise the Habs, powered by Guillaume Latendresse, Sergei Kostitsyn and Alex Tanguay, skated away with a 6-1 victory in Toronto's 91st home opener. The Leafs fell to 42-31-15-2 in home openers, their seventh home-opening loss in a row.

Coach Ron Wilson has informed fans there would be nights like this - "Bumps along the way," he had called it earlier in the day - he just didn't think it would come so quickly after an energizing win in Detroit on Thursday.

Parts of the game that made the Leafs look so tantalizingly entertaining - an energetic forecheck, a relentless backcheck - vanished. Bad habits returned.

If anything, last night's effort proved the Leafs have a lot to work on: their power play, penalty killing, goaltending, five-on-five play, team discipline.

Those are just for starters.

Of course, this team is still getting to know each other and growing pains are to be expected for a team with half of the no fewer than 10 new players on its roster.

So blind backhand passes to players who quickly move out of position are, perhaps, to be expected.

But sellouts of 19,370 expect more to cheer.

Jason Blake scored a power-play goal - the Leafs were already down 5-0 at the time - so that was something.

Curtis Joseph replaced a very shaky Vesa Toskala after two periods, the Habs up 6-1.

That gave the crowd a chance to chant "Cujo" again.

Jamal Mayers won an abbreviated fight over Habs tough guy Tom Kostopoulos, but that's hardly the hockey Wilson wants.

And to their credit, the Leafs didn't quit. Nik Antropov thought he scored a goal, but it was called back because his elbow appeared to direct the puck into the net.

Matt Stajan and Jiri Tlusty each had a breakaways as singular efforts overtook team play.

Mikhail Grabovski came to play, winning the opening faceoff and looking like a force in trying to control the puck against his former team.

But the rest of the Maple Leafs - perhaps nervous in front of the sellout crowd - lacked any jump in their skating, a big reason the Habs opened up a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes and stretched it to 6-1 after 40.

Roman Hamrlik and Alex Kovalev got the opening markers. Kovalev's was a beauty, spinning in front of the Leaf net and burying the puck low to the left corner while Leaf defenceman Jonas Frogren did his best to tie up the Habs sniper.

Rookie Luke Schenn had an off period, if not an off night, committing a giveaway in front of Toskala and another at the Habs' blue line while the Leafs were pressing.

The Leafs had the only power play of the first period and were ineffective moving the puck or gaining the Montreal zone.

Penalties did in the Leafs in the second period, during which Montreal scored three times with the man advantage and four times overall.

Stajan took a four-minute high-sticking penalty and the Habs scored twice, with Sergei Kostitsyn and Alex Tanguay notching their first goals of the season.

Schenn then took a delay-of-game call, and Sergei Kostitsyn got his second of the night, a wrist shot over Toskala's glove.

Blake got the Leafs on the board. The right winger had been shooting - and missing - all night from all angles, so it is with some irony how he scored his first of the year. This time, Mike Van Ryn's slap shot bounced off Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak and Blake tapped in the rebound.

Leaf Nation was in the process of celebrating the announcement of that goal when Latendresse scored to make it a 6-1 Montreal lead 22 seconds later.

Leafs learn hard lesson against Habs - Montreal 6, Toronto 1

TORONTO - Two nights after going on the road to upset the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Toronto Maple Leafs returned to Air Canada Centre on Saturday for a not-so-welcome homecoming.

In what was described as a learning experience, the Leafs were defeated 6-1 in a one-sided battle against the Montreal Canadiens.

"That's a real polished team over there," said goaltender Curtis Joseph, who replaced Vesa Toskala to start the third period. "If you're a little off, they're going to expose you. And (Saturday night) we were a little bit off. But you've got to learn from those mistakes."

The Leafs will be hard-pressed to avoid similar results this season. In order to defeat the Red Wings 3-2 on Thursday, Toronto needed a blue-collar effort from all 18 skaters, a Vezina-type performance from Toskala and a poor showing from its opponent.

Over an 82-game schedule, that may be too much to ask for on a nightly basis.

"I think this was important for us to see how hard we have to work night in and night out . . . in order to play with teams like Detroit and Montreal," said Leafs forward Alex Steen. "I don't know what to say. We have to get back to how we played the other night."

Though Toronto exhibited growing pains, Montreal looked every bit like a Stanley Cup contenders.

Fresh off a 2-1 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday, the Canadiens showed why many believe they will once again finish first in the Eastern Conference. The team has the personnel to be the most dangerous teams in the league. And when they are firing on all cylinders, no one - not even Toskala, who allowed six goals on 23 shots - has a chance of stopping them.

Off-season acquisition Alex Tanguay put on an offensive show with four points, Sergei Kostitsyn chipped in with two goals and an assist, and goaltender Jaroslav Halak stopped 24-of-25 shots.

If there was a silver lining for the Leafs, it was that they committed more than enough mistakes for the young and developing team to learn from.

No one is expecting Toronto to qualify for the playoffs. With Mats Sundin gone and eight players aged 25 or younger in the lineup, the team is short on talent and experience. Still, there is no excuse for how the Leafs played on Saturday.

"It wasn't our young players (Saturday night) who laid an egg," said head coach Ron Wilson. "It was some of our veteran guys, who will probably want to say it was our young guys who didn't get the job done. Some people need to step up in a situation like that and lead. And I thought (Mikhail) Grabovski and (18-year-old rookie) Luke Schenn were two of our better people on the ice."

The Leafs may have been the better team to start the game, but Toronto, which received its lone goal from Jason Blake, failed to capitalize on its scoring chances.

Once the Canadiens started scoring, they never looked back.

Alex Kovalev spun around a stationary Jonas Frongren and scored a highlight-reel goal to put Montreal up 2-0 at 12:39 in the first period. The Canadiens then rattled off four power-play goals in the middle frame to take a commanding 6-1 lead.

"You never want to see nights like (Saturday night)," said Leafs defenceman Pavel Kubina, who vowed his team would be better at home against the St. Louis Blues on Monday.

"We can't start panicking. We're not going to lead every game. And the second goal that they scored against us, we started panicking and took stupid penalties and made lots of mistakes in our zone."

When the third period began, the Leafs saved Toskala from further humiliation by replacing him with Joseph.

The veteran goaltender stopped all 11 shots that he faced, not that it mattered much. By then, the game had already been decided.

"I don't think Vesa was very sharp," said Wilson, who added that Toskala would start Monday's game. "He was back and deep in his net and got tentative like the rest of our team. It was a good opportunity to get Cujo's feet wet."

Against all odds

DETROIT -- More than a few eyebrows were raised in the cramped quarters of the Joe Louis Arena press box last night when the opening lineups were handed out to the media.

There, beside the name of Vesa Toskala was a large letter "C," inferring the Leafs goalie, in fact, was the Toronto captain on this occasion.

It would be the first of many surprises on this night, none bigger than the final score.

Who could have predicted the Leafs -- recently referred to as almost "an expansion team" by general manager Cliff Fletcher -- would march into The Joe on the evening the Stanley Cup banner was raised and thoroughly spoil the Red Wings party?

Who would have figured this inexperienced team, one that had four players -- Luke Schenn, Jonas Frogren, John Mitchell and Nikolai Kulemin -- taking part in their first NHL games, would slay the champions.

The final was 3-2 Toronto. No, that is not a misprint.

"This is one of the most satisfying wins I've ever had," said Leafs coach Ron Wilson, who claimed to know nothing about Toskala's alleged captaincy. "For us, tonight was a really special night. I'm really proud of everyone on this team."

He had plenty of reason to be.

During the pre-game ceremony which, included the exhibiting of the Stanley Cup, the Leafs were on the bench taking it all in. Obviously they were not overwhelmed.

"The young kids were outstanding considering it was their first game and you've seen the Stanley Cup and you're playing the Stanley Cup champs, all the guys you've watched on TV," Wilson said. "Nobody was intimidated. We had our mistakes and our moments but that's why we have a quality goalie. He got the job done."

So, too, did youngsters like Kulemin who scored his first NHL goal with flair, notching the eventual winner at 7:25 of the third with a nifty breakaway move on Wings goalie Chris Osgood.

"They are going to mount the puck for me," Kulemin said through teammate-turned-interpreter Nik Antropov. "I'm very excited.

"(The ceremonies) were very interesting. It was interesting to see the Stanley Cup. Hopefully one day we can win it."

A kid can dream, can't he?

Perhaps these Leafs don't have household names like Tucker, Sundin and McCabe, but, like Kulemin, some of these newcomers really showed what they can do.

Forward Niklas Hagman, for one, certainly has more offensive flair and skill than he is given credit for. Maybe his talent was masked by the stifling defensive system he was involved in with the Dallas Stars, but he really exhibited a more creative side of his game last night.

Centre Mikhail Grabovski displayed his significant upside while second-year forward Jiri Tlusty knitted together some good chances as well.

"I wouldn't say I was surprised at the outcome," Hagman said. "But I was a bit surprised that we were able to maintain our level of play the way we did throughout the whole game after our roller-coaster pre-season."

Osgood was impressed.

"They have a better team than last year," he said. "Some people think just because you switched older players out in Toronto your team is going to be worse. It's not the case. They have some good young players on their team. They really forced the issue on us and forechecked well.

"They held us in our end quite a bit."

Pavel Kubina and Dominic Moore also scored for the Leafs. Tomas Holmstrom replied twice for the defending champions.

As for the "C" beside Toskala's name, it proved to be a hoax.

Unlike the final score.

---

REPLAY

RUMOUR DE JOUR

Sources close to the situation insist that recent rumours are not true suggesting Maple Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph and country music icon Shania Twain have become an item.

Joseph apparently has been approached about the scuttlebutt by curious reporters the past few days, including a member of Sun Media this morning.

Cujo's response? He remained quiet, offered up a wry smile, then headed off to the team bus.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Former Red Wings coach Johnny Wilson, uncle of Leafs coach Ron Wilson, was said to be at The Joe today.

"I haven't had much success in this building in the past," Ron Wilson joked. "The Red Wings used to accuse (Johnny Wilson) of spying on them for me. But, given my lack of success here, maybe he was spying ON me instead."

FRESH FACES

The Leafs had 11 news faces on their roster: Forwards Mikhail Grabovski, Ryan Hollweg, Nikolai Kulemin, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers, John Mitchell, defencemen Jeff Finger, Mike Van Ryn, Jonas Frogren, Luke Schenn and goalie Curtis Joseph.

Leaf rookies in starting lineup

DETROIT - While he has garnered the most attention, 18-year-old Luke Schenn won't be the only Maple Leaf making his NHL debut here tonight.

In the lineup, along with Schenn, are neophyte forwards John Mitchell and Nikolai Kulemin and rookie defenceman Jonas Frogren. Sitting out as healthy scratches tonight are defenceman Anton Stralman and defenceman/right winger Ian White. Left winger Ryan Hollweg is suspended while defenceman Jeff Finger remains out with a bruised foot.

For Mitchell, tonight has additional meaning since he played his junior hockey about a half-hour north of here in Plymouth, a place where he also met his future wife. The Wings were always the team on TV and he got to a few games live during his junior days.

"I've watched a lot of these players for a lot of years," he said. "But I can't be in awe, otherwise I won't be in the right mindset for a hockey game. It's different being down on the ice then it is being in the stands looking down, everybody looks a little bit bigger."

Mitchell, 23, played three seasons with the Marlies, and after scoring eight goals in the AHL playoffs last spring, the Leafs thought he'd be ready to make the next step. He didn't disappoint with a strong showing at camp.

"I'm trying not to get overly excited," he said of his debut tonight. "If you do that, you get nervous. Then if you're nervous, you're not thinking and your brain's not working. You've got to find that happy medium between staying kind of calm but also being jacked up and excited for the game."

At 28, Frogren is realizing a long-time dream to play in the NHL. He'd wanted to come to North America to play since he was a teenager. He was drafted in 1998, by Calgary 206th overall, but never got a look. He says that changed a couple of seasons back when he made a conscious effort to play a more physical game. That's what attracted the Leafs, and he brought that hard-nosed attitude to the ice at camp. After watching him play very well for Sweden at the world championship in the spring, Toronto signed him as a free agent in July.

"I've been waiting for this, really, all my life. I never gave up," he said. "I played a couple of exhibition games and now it's a real game. I'm super pumped."

Stralman also had a strong world championship for Sweden, so he was obviously frustrated that he couldn't follow that up with a strong camp, a disappointment that pushed him out of the lineup last night.

"I understand the situation. I didn't play good at camp. So I'm not bitching about anything," he said. "You knew right away when you got here, it was going to be a hard competition for jobs on the blueline. I'll keep working to try to get a spot. It might take a week. I might take a month. But I'm ready to work for it."

NOTES: Tomas Kaberle, Jamal Mayers and Pavel Kubina will all wear an "A" tonight as assistant captains. They are part of a pool of five players, including Dominic Moore and Nik Antropov, who will take turns getting the designation on a monthly basis. No captain has been named to replace Mats Sundin... Vesa Toskala will start in net, unlike last season when he watched the season-opener from the bench... The Leafs will be on the ice, not in their dressing room, when the Wings hoist their Stanley Cup banner tonight.

Maple Leafs Game Day

DETROIT - News and notes from Joe Louis Arena heading into tonight’s 2008-09 season opener between the Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings.

1. Them’s Fightin’ Words?

Leafs coach Ron Wilson had a good chuckle this morning when informed by a reporter that he had made USA Today.

But not for the reason he might have expected.

The publication apparently ran a recent article listing the top matchups of the upcoming season, including the battle between superstars Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.

No. 5 on the list? Ron Wilson vs. the Toronto media.

“Boy they are giving you guys too much credit,” Wilson told a scrum of 20 reporters, tongue planted firmly in cheek.

After calling the report “irrelevant,” Wilson added one final quip.

“It’s a battle I’d be heavily favoured in anyway,” he quipped.

2. Rumour de jour

Sources close to the situation insist that recent rumours are not true suggesting Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph and country music icon Shania Twain have become an item.

Joseph apparently has been approached about the scuttlebutt by curious reporters the past few days, including a member of Sun Media this morning.

Cujo’s response? He remained quiet, offered up a wry smile, then headed off to the team bus.

3. All In The Family

Former Red Wings coach Johnny Wilson, uncle of Leaf coach Ron Wilson, was said to be at The Joe today.

“I haven’t had much success in this building in the past,” Ron Wilson joked. “The Red Wings used to accuse (Johnny Wilson) of spying on them for me. But, given my lack of success here, maybe he was spying ON me instead.”

4. Loose Leafs

Judging by those players still on the ice after the majority of Leafs had finished their morning skate, Ian White and Anton Stralman could be healthy scratches tonight. The Leafs have eight healthy defencemen plus injured blue liner Jeff Finger, so their are no shortage of bodies. “It probably will be a game-to-game decision on who will dress on defence,” Wilson said. “Whoever plays better will continue to be out there.” ... Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom is wearing a visor after a puck deflected off the stick of new teammate Marian Hossa and smacked him in the face during an exhibition game against the Montreal Canadiens. He said he likely will continue wearing it ... The Leafs have 11 news faces on their roster - Forwards Mikhail Grabovski, Ryan Holwig, Nikolai Kulemin, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers, John Mitchell, defencemen Jeff Finger, Mike Van Ryn, Jonas Frogren, Luke Schenn and goalie Curtis Joseph.

5. The Bottom Lines

Here are the projected Maple Leaf lines for tonight:

Jiri Tlusty-Mikhail Grabovski-Niklas Hagman

Alexei Ponikarovsky-Nik Antropov-Jason Blake

Alex Steen-Dominic Moore-Nikolai Kulemin

Matt Stajan-Jamal Mayers-John Mitchell

Schenn pumped about tonight's debut

DETROIT - Luke Schenn is excited.

Marian Hossa has mixed feelings.

And Ron Wilson? He’s not sure yet.

Such are the roller-coaster of emotions that come with opening night.

When the puck is dropped between the Maple Leafs and Red Wings tonight in the kickoff of the 2008-09 season for both teams, Schenn said he will be more pumped up than nervous.

“You dream about this night,” Schenn said after the Leafs morning skate at Joe Louis Arena. “I played against guys like (Evgeni) Malkin and (Sidney) Crosby during the preseason, so I know what its like to face stars. And Detroit has plenty of them.”

Schenn recalled being at The Joe for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final between the Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins four months ago.

“Now I’m playing against them,” said Schenn, the fifth overall pick in the 2008 entry draft. “It’s amazing how quickly things have gone.”

Schenn’s parents will not be at the game, unable to get a flight in time from Saskatoon. They will, however, be in attendance for the Leaf home opener Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens at the Air Canada Centre along with his sisters Madison and Macy.

For the time being, Schenn estimated that “up to 100 people” might join his dad Jeff and mother Rita at their Saskatoon home to watch the game tonight on television.

Hossa, meanwhile, admits it will be “kind of weird” watching the Wings Stanley Cup banner being raised to the roof during a pre-game ceremony. After all, the Wings defeated Hossa’s Pittsburgh Penguins in the final to win the Stanley Cup.

Subscribing to the credo that “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Hossa turned down more lucrative offers to sign a one-year, $7.45 million US deal with the Wings.

“It will be nice to get things going,” Hossa said.

As for Wilson, the one-time Leaf defenceman who now coaches the team, he said the pre-game skate likely will bring some finality to his busy off-season.

“I think when I’m standing behind the bench, watching all the activity during warmup, it will finally sink in: I’m the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Wilson said.

Leafs opening night with the Wings ... and a prayer

It would be a stretch to say Mikhail Grabovski is the new face of the Maple Leafs, or that he is the designated successor to Mats Sundin.

The 5-foot-9 Grabovski - listed at 5-foot-11, but not a chance - would have to be literally stretched in order to resemble the semi-retired, 6-foot-5 Swedish centre.

Thank goodness they didn't give Grabovski No.13 in the same way poor Jonas Frogren was handed the departed Bryan McCabe's No.24.

Talk about being handed a scarlet letter.

Grabovski is one of a handful of Leaf players who represent new possibilities going into the 2008-09 season, one widely expected to be long and dreary. As head coach Ron Wilson joked yesterday, the bar for these Leafs has been set so low "we can't even trip over it."

That said, the Leafs have the opportunity in the first year of the post-Sundin era to do something useful and important, which is to establish the beginnings of a constructive new era for this hockey club.

Grabovski, unable to latch on to a regular spot in Montreal before being traded to Toronto last summer for the rather lofty price of a second-round draft pick, is thus symbolic of this year's Leafs. If he - like they - wants to be taken seriously, making something out of this season is a start.

"I was happy when I heard I was traded here," said Grabovski, 24, born in Germany but a native of Belarus. "The first team I asked about was Toronto."

Somewhere, somehow, these Leafs will have to find a way to score goals. Right now, Nik Antropov and Grabovski are 1 and 1A up the middle and together they will be asked to replace the roughly 32 goals and 80 points Sundin delivered every season.

"It's a little bit different here," Grabovski said yesterday. "I like it because I play."

Every Leaf who made the squad, it's fair to say, is going to get a chance under the Wilson regime. The blackboard has been wiped clean and it's interesting that Matt Stajan and Alex Steen, two players previously identified as pivotal to the future of this team, are occupying third- and fourth-line roles going into the season opener tonight.

No player has been designated captain. Instead, five players will share three assistant captain designations on a rotating monthly basis. There is no acknowledged No.1 blue-line tandem and, really, aside from Vesa Toskala as the starting goalie, the true audition sessions begin tonight in Motown and the minutes played by individual players will paint an interesting picture.

"I haven't really seen anybody. Now the real bullets start to fly," Wilson said. "Until now, it's been like paintball. But starting (tonight) you can get killed out there."

Along with Grabovski, defenceman Jeff Finger - still out for another week to 10 days - winger Niklas Hagman, forward Nikolai Kulemin and 18-year-old blueliner Luke Schenn are the players who provide the sense this club is headed in a new, fresh direction. Otherwise, it's Wilson making daily promises that players will be held accountable, including no more hiding from post-game media inquiries.

We'll believe that one when we see it.

"Anybody who stagnates or doesn't pay attention to detail, well, they won't be here," Wilson said.

The new coach still carries San Jose fingerprints, showing his new team Sharks video clips as a means of explaining what he wants done. He chatted on the telephone with San Jose scout Tim Burke yesterday, discussing the progress of various Sharks youngsters.

Starting tonight, however, the strength and talent of that Silicon Valley squad that he helped build will seem a universe away. Beginning against the Red Wings in the city where both his father and uncle played, Wilson officially returns to a Leafs team for which he once briefly played at a time when the franchise is at a low ebb.

He's probably already noticed Sundin is gone. Helping Grabovski and others believe they can be the beginning of a new era in Leaf hockey is the stiff challenge that lies ahead.
The Toronto Star

Led to slaughter?

Rather than being wallflowers at someone else's party tonight, the Maple Leafs may take a look at how the other half lives.

So when the Stanley Cup banner is raised at Joe Louis Arena prior to the NHL season opener for both teams, coach Ron Wilson hopes to take his young Leafs out of the dressing room to watch the ceremony honouring the reigning champion Red Wings.

"It might not be a bad idea as a way of looking up and saying: 'You know what, maybe in a couple of years we'll be lucky enough to do the same thing ourselves,' " Wilson said yesterday at Lakeshore Lions Arena following the team's final pre-season practice.

"(Instead of) sitting in the dressing room and thinking like you are facing a firing squad ... get out there and soak up some of the energy."

While not necessarily the firing squad, the Leafs don't enter this rebuilding season quietly. And let's be honest, tonight's festivities could be as close as they get to a Stanley Cup banner for several years.

After the Red Wings tonight, they face the Montreal Canadiens in Saturday's home opener at the Air Canada Centre. Four of their first six games are against teams that topped the century mark in points last season, so on paper anyway, it could get ugly early.

Wilson said he's fine with the stout start because it will give his youthful troops a realistic early barometer of what awaits.

"You couldn't get two more intense games," Wilson said. "This is a good thing. If we were to go out there against what you might call the softer teams and get a couple of wins ... I know how this works, they'll be planning the parade route."

Other than a lack of proven scoring and 10 newcomers in the starting lineup, Wilson and his staff know little about what they have for the 2008-09 season. In fact, the coach acknowledged yesterday that he is anxious to see how they respond to the "bullets" of regular season as opposed to the "paint ball" of the exhibition schedule.

The players that have made the opening night roster have spent little time together, with high-tempo practices the past two days, the only true chance for the coaching staff to work seriously with the starting lineup.

"It's a young team with a lot of new faces, so we definitely have to outwork our opponents every night," said Jason Blake, who will start the season on a line with Alex Ponikarovsky and Nik Antropov. "I think we have the group of guys to do that. This group has come together well in a short period of time. It's good to see and we're going to need that."

They'll need plenty more to be competitive against teams such as the Red Wings, of course. And Wilson won't hesitate to put his youngsters into tough situations to see how they handle the heat.

But with so many players anxious to prove themselves to the coaching staff and a stated lack of urgency by management, tonight marks the beginning of the process.

"Young guys are always full of excitement and ambition," Ponikarovsky said. "They want to show they belong. I know myself when I first made the team I just wanted to show I belonged here. We have a lot of guys in that situation."

Schenn sat to study Lidstrom

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed defenceman Luke Schenn, their top pick in the 2008 National Hockey League entry draft, meaning he'll start the season with the Leafs Friday at Joe Louis Arena against the Detroit Red Wings instead of returning to the junior ranks.

This decision begs the following question -- why was it, then, that Schenn sat in the press box and watched last Friday as the Leafs and Wings played a pre-season tilt at JLA?

The official line from the Leafs' brass was that they wanted Schenn to study Wings captain and five-time Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom. But wouldn't the rookie have been better served on the ice, learning how to deal with the likes of Henrik Zetterberg, Marian Hossa and Johan Franzen before he had to do it for real?

DEFEATS A WAKE-UP CALL: Leafs coach Ron Wilson of Windsor felt his team's weekend pre-season losses to the Wings would serve his young squad well in the long run.

"It was wake up and learn from a great team," Wilson said.

"Their best players work hard. If you can't get inspired watching a guy like Zetterberg fore-check, backcheck and play hard and you're sitting back thinking, 'I don't know if I want to do that. That's a lot of hard work,' then we're not going to win many games. Going forward, I think our guys know what kind of feeling you want to have."

TOSKALA'S PLAY NO CAUSE FOR CONCERN: Wilson indicated he wasn't worried by the indifferent play of goalie Vesa Toskala through the exhibition campaign.

"He doesn't have to play great until Thursday," Wilson said.

Slowly, Leafs forward Alexander Steen believes the club is adapting to the coaching style of Wilson, who took over the team this season.

"We need to keep building," Steen said. "I think everybody is getting a little comfortable with the system. We know what we need to do as a group."

ROSTER MOVES: Defenceman Jeff Finger, nursing a broken foot, won't be in the Leafs' lineup Thursday . . . Former Spitfires forward Cal O'Reilly was sent to Milwaukee of the AHL by the Nashville Predators . . . Chicago cut ex-Plymouth Whaler Jesse Boulerice from a training-camp tryout, while Atlanta did the same to former Red Wings defenceman Jamie Rivers . . . Ex-Leaf Bryan Berard was released by the Flyers

Mitchell seizes his opportunity

Nobody had bothered to tell John Mitchell the good news.

But there were several clues Mitchell could stitch together to deduce that, after three years of trying, he had made it. Finally, he was a full-fledged member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The first clue was the day: Tuesday. It was two days after fellow-training camp hopefuls Robbie Earl and Kyle Rogers were shipped back to the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies, and one day after Mark Bell, a veteran NHL forward, was placed on waivers.

The second clue was when Mitchell skated Tuesday at practice on a line with two Leafs regulars, Matt Stajan and Ian White.

Best of all was clue No. 3: Mitchell walked into the Leafs' dressing room at Lakeshore Lions Arena at the end of practice and the plastic nameplate above his stall was still there.

"No one has really told me anything," the 23-year-old winger said, after dumping his sweaty jersey into a laundry bin. "But I'm still here. I'm still skating on the ice, and I'm on a line that is in the lineup, and I only can only assume what that means."

Some players, such as defenceman Luke Schenn, the fifth overall pick in the 2008 draft, are considered blue-chip prospects.

They just can't miss. And, in Schenn's case, the 18-year-old seems to have gotten it right on his first try.

Mitchell was Toronto's fifth-round entry draft pick in 2003. It would have been perfectly understandable if he'd missed. Most fifth-round draft picks do.

"It is a little bit hard, when years go on and on -- three years, and you don't get the call-up and you don't get anything," Mitchell said.

"And then you start to wonder, 'Where do they fit me in the organization?' And I always felt that I was good enough, that I had the skills and everything to play up here, I was just never really given the opportunity."

Growing up, Mitchell was the star of every team he played on. Nobody ever told him he was not ready or good enough. But then he hit the big city. And one season with the Marlies became two, and then three.

But Season 3 was lucky for Mitchell, even if he didn't think so at the time. The Leafs were abysmal in 2007-08. And the big club's campaign ended long before the Marlies' long AHL playoff run did, and Toronto's upper management had time to take a hard look at what it had on the farm.

"Last year, I did pretty good, I had 20 goals in the regular season and eight goals in playoffs," Mitchell said.

"I think last year was the year they saw what I could do, and they gave me an opportunity this camp."

MADE MOST OF CAMP

Mitchell made the most of it, and now he is poised to actually play in a regular-season NHL game for the same team as his boyhood hero, Doug Gilmour.

Mitchell wears No. 39, which is Gil-mour's old number flipped backwards.

He refers to the Leafs legend as Dougie G, and he even used to tuck his sweater into his pants when he was a kid, just like Gilmour once did.

And now Gilmour is one of the farm-hands, working as an assistant coach with the Marlies. It is Mitchell who is with the big club.

"I have talked to him a bunch of times," Mitchell said.

"But, hopefully, I don't have to go back there. Hopefully, he can come here and visit me."

Leafs net half full

Leafs goaltender Vesa Toskala knows there will be nights this season when his workload will require some serious heavy lifting, but it could be worse.

He could be looking out at the Leafs of 2007-08.

"I don't think there can be more mistakes than we made last year," Toskala said yesterday after a spirited 90-minute practice at Lakeshore Lions Arena in advance of tomorrow's season opener in Detroit.

"I think it's going to be a lot better. Now we have players here who want to really improve. I think that's important and I don't feel we had that last year."

Toskala wasn't alone in that view, obviously, as the Leafs that open the season against the Stanley Cup champs will have at least 10 new faces in the lineup. After the off- season housecleaning and a busy training camp, at least 10 of them will be under the age of 25.

The team continued that process yesterday by putting defenceman Staffan Kronwall and forward Boyd Devereaux on waivers while keeping forward John Mitchell, forward/defenceman Ian White and defenceman Jonas Frogren.

When Toskala starts tomorrow, he expects a team in front of him that will work hard and unlike last year be committed to improvement.

"We have a fast team, obviously much younger than last year," said Toskala, who last year lost the No. 1 job to Andrew Raycroft for a short spell. "It's going to take some time, but I really feel we are going in the right direction and I think that we are going to be much better than people give us credit for."

With such turnover, the Leafs could be confused by some as an expansion team. But coach Ron Wilson says with youth on his side, that label would be a mistake.

"An expansion team is rarely young, they're usually old like last year's (Leafs)," Wilson said. "That was an expansion team in a real sense. With expansion teams, you don't get quality young players to work with and I think I have that here."

Wilson re-iterated yesterday that he won't stick with players in key situations just because of their age and/or experience. Instead, he will look big picture and stick with the process.

"If I don't play young guys in tough situations, they aren't going to improve," Wilson said. "If I rely on veterans who have maybe not got it done in the past just because they are veterans, you are overlooking the development part.

"I've been in this situation three or four times as a coach, where it looks bleak and you just focus on the little details and things turn around in a hurry."

Wilson's track record with such teams was a big reason for his hire, a trait general manager Cliff Fletcher can relate to from his own career heyday in Alberta.

"Ron has coached an expansion team before and he has coached young teams and seen them develop," Fletcher said. "I've been in that process in Calgary. Back in the '80s, we looked 180 miles up the road and saw this juggernaut, the greatest hockey team in the history of the NHL, probably. But we caught them and eventually we won a Stanley Cup.

"Going by that model, that's what our goal is here."